A horse and headphones? Harbaugh loose before NFC title game

When he was told a horse named after him will go off at 10-1 odds on Saturday in the $100,000 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields, Jim Harbaugh smiled.

An underdog? Perfect.

“Better not underestimate him,” Harbaugh said of Harbaugh, a 3-year-old colt. “He likes being underestimated. He’ll use that as long as he can, I’m sure.”

Two days before the NFC Championship Game in Seattle, a loose and relaxed Harbaugh met with the media today, enthusiastically fielding the Harbaugh-horse question and going off on a tangent on quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s recent “Beats by Dre” commercial.

As far as the horse, his former owners, Kretz Racing, were big 49ers fans and named him after the coach once the Niners reached the Super Bowl last year. The horse, however, has since been claimed by other owners. He has two wins in four career starts.

“He said that there was a horse named Harbaugh that he thought was going to be running at the Kentucky Derby,” Harbaugh said. “Tom’s a big fan of the horses and the Kentucky Derby.”

And Harbaugh is quite an enthusiastic fan of Kaepernick’s commercial. The spot depicts the quarterback listening to noise-canceling headphones on the team bus, while opposing fans, many of whom are sporting Seahawks colors, jeer at him.

At the podium, Harbaugh, unprompted, began hailing the commercial when he spotted Kaepernick at the back of the media tent.

“I absolutely love it,” Harbaugh said. “Because it’s very true, you’re thinking about the game when you’re riding in on the bus. It’s somewhat like that. Yeah. Definitely. You’re riding in and the fans are all out there and sometimes they’re that way that they are in the video.

“And the song is such a toe-tapper, that I get the chills on that one. I’m going to get me some Beats by Dre. Beats by Dre. I am sold! That commercial has sold me!”

For his part, Kaepernick, who pledged to give Harbaugh some headphones, doesn’t anticipate seeing screaming Seahawks fans on the ride to the stadium Sunday.

“We pull in through the back,” he said. “So we really don’t see too much.”

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The 49ers team bus left this afternoon for Seattle with a crowd of about 100 fans cheering at the gate outside the team facility. News helicopters also hovered as the team exited for San Jose International Airport.

The 49ers typically depart the day before the game when they play at Seattle and Arizona, but Harbaugh said a group of players requested to leave a day early. The 49ers left two days before playoff wins at Green Bay and Carolina.

“Stay together,” Harbaugh said of the reasoning. “Be together an extra day.”

Harbaugh dismissed the suggestion his team, which has traveled for four straight weeks, could be road-weary.

“Well A — I would say that you don’t strive to be fresh,” Harbaugh said. “You strive to be hardened, and a callous built up. B, they’ve got this brand-new invention that’s made it really good for us, called the airplane. You’re on it and you’re there. You’re back. It’s a wonderful new invention.”